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Amazon has found yet another way to connect with the real estate industry — or rather, talk to it. And Voiceter Pro, an app developer for Google Home and Amazon’s Echo, is helping perpetuate the conversation.
Miguel Berger, Voiceter Pro co-founder and broker with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Tech Valley, told Inman last week about a number of new developments for the voice-activated internet (VAI) company, which he runs with his son Amitai Berger.
New brokerages have come online under the app, including Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties in Atlanta, eight offices under Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Professional Realty in Ohio and Better Homes & Gardens Kansas City Homes.
Each of the offices launched Voiceter Pro’s real estate search and home valuation skills.
The company, a finalist for the 2017 Inman Innovator Award, has worked on each device’s ability to understand home addresses spoken within its skills. A new algorithm has increased accuracy “… from 60 percent to about 85 percent,” according to the elder Berger. (There is also a skill that helps new and existing agents find a new place to work.)
“We have 1,700 agents, and we want them to understand what the consumer is after,” said Tony Floyd, chief marketing officer of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties in Atlanta. He’s been helping spearhead the company’s adoption of VAI appliances.
“We’re giving away Echos at events, in sales incentive giveaways, and we’ve given Echo Shows to all of our office brokers so they really understand how the Alexa platform works. Our agents use them at open houses — it definitely has a wow factor to it,” Floyd added.
Floyd’s offices are finding multiple ways to leverage voice search, including integrating Voiceter Pro with their customer relationship management software (CRM).
“Voiceter Pro will connect with our database to see if a lead is already assigned to an agent,” Floyd said. The company is working on a similar connection with Buyside, a lead capture software.
With a number of brokerages as clients, the Bergers developed an administrative center to help brokers encourage their agents to adopt. The new dashboard allows agents to create profiles, better manage leads and more clearly brand themselves within assigned lead territories.
Also new is Voiceter Pro University, a training center on how to best use the app. Agents can find ad copy, promotional images and video tutorials.
“People are realizing that this technology is here to stay,” Miguel Berger said. “It’s going mainstream — either jump on, or someone else will.”
Other improvements include a quasi-blend of the app’s skills. After asking Alexa or Google to open “real estate,” it’ll respond with: “Do you want search for a home or hear your home’s value?” Early versions separated the requests.
A partnership with real estate data company Terradatum has improved localized home valuation estimates, according to Berger.
The company is also in the early stages of an MLS partnership discussion; specifics were not disclosed.
The father and son duo recently hired a new engineer and plan to offer their software to other industries. They’ve already created a skill for an Albany, New York Humane Society location.
Amazon and Google are in a race to expand VAI technologies and find new ways to enter the home. It’s very likely that in a few years voice search will be a ubiquitous form of interfacing with software.
Is the Berger family correct? Is voice-activated real estate search here to stay? Tell us what you think in the comments section.
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